Projected photovoltaic energy impacts on US CO2 emissions: an integrated energy environmental–economic analysis

✍ Scribed by J. C. Lee; V. M. Fthenakis; S. C. Morris; G. A. Goldstein; P. D. Moskowitz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 183 KB
• Volume: 5
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1062-7995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(199707/08)5:4<277::aid-pip175>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

The potential role of photovoltaic technologies in reducing carbon dioxide CO 2 emissions in the USA was evaluated using an energy±environment±economic systems model. With a range of assumptions about future scenarios up to 2030, the model results provide an objective quantitative assessment of the prospects for photovoltaics in a competitive market. With the projected improvements in cost and eciency, photovoltaics will compete favorably as a general source of electricity supply to the grid by about 2010 in southwestern USA. This analysis indicates that photovoltaics has the potential to reach a total installed capacity of 140 GW by the year 2030, and to displace a cumulative 450 million metric tons of carbon emissions from 1995 to 2030. At the projected 2030 capacity, photovoltaics could displace over 64 million metric tons of carbon emissions a year. Under constraints on carbon emissions, photovoltaics becomes more cost eective and would further reduce carbon emissions from the US energy system.